The document “SpeechSynthesisServer.app” could not be opened because it is damaged or incomplete.

Had the same. what's to be done?

kindly assist

Upgraded yesterday 8/19/12 received the same message.

Try this first

1.) First, see this article to install the latest updates for your computer:

Mac OS X: Updating your software
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1338

2.) From the Apple () menu, choose “App Store.”

3.) From the Store pull-down menu, choose Check for Unfinished Downloads.

4.) If prompted, enter your Apple ID and password, then click the Sign In button. Your download should begin automatically.

Click the Purchases button at the top of the App Store window to see your downloads. If your download doesn’t start automatically, click the Resume button next to the application name on the Purchases page.

If an application you’ve purchased isn’t on your Purchases page, it may have been hidden. You can hide a purchase by clicking the "X" to the left of the Install button. To check for hidden purchases and unhide them if necessary, see this article:

Mac App Store: Hiding and unhiding purchases
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4928

Was there ever a solution found for this? I updated to 10.8 yesterday and now get the same error on startup.

I have run all Software Updates and have no pending or undownloaded files. The OS is current at 10.8.1.

Please help - thanks!

Hi loganyc since that did not work, I would go to your iTunes receipt click on "report a problem" follow the directions. I used this before and the service was exellent. Let me know how you make out

I have the same problem (one of several with the Moutain Lion Upgrade - oh! how I wish I'd not done that upgrade!). I followed the "report a problem" route, but they just sent back a link to this thread! I've tried again, and I'll post if I get an answer.

I think this bug may hit people whose user accounts have gone through a few versions of OS X AND are going directly from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion. In my case my user account started out with 10.2 - so it's picked up some cruft.

There are several items in my non-admin user Preferences:Users and Groups:User:Login Items that are not in my Admin account user including an item called SpeechSynthesisServer. It had a yellow warning triangle next to it and the data type was unrecognized.

I removed it from Login Items, logged out, logged in, and the bug was gone.

The LoginIn item is referencing a system app, that app is still present post upgrade:

/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A
/Frameworks/SpeechSynthesis.framework/Versions/A.

I suspect the app is still important. DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING IN SYSTEM/LIBRARY. Just leave it alone

iTunesHelper was also on the one user's LoginItems and I removed it.

I think there are a couple of bugs with the Login Item migration from SL to ML. For example, a disk image I mounted showed with a yellow icon too. I removed it, added it back in, and it was fine.

jfaughnan wrote:

I think this bug may hit people whose user accounts have gone through a few versions of OS X AND are going directly from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion. In my case my user account started out with 10.2 - so it's picked up some cruft.

There are several items in my non-admin user Preferences:Users and Groups:User:Login Items that are not in my Admin account user including an item called SpeechSynthesisServer. It had a yellow warning triangle next to it and the data type was unrecognized.

I removed it from Login Items, logged out, logged in, and the bug was gone.

The LoginIn item is referencing a system app, that app is still present post upgrade:

/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A
/Frameworks/SpeechSynthesis.framework/Versions/A.

I suspect the app is still important. DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING IN SYSTEM/LIBRARY. Just leave it alone

iTunesHelper was also on the one user's LoginItems and I removed it.

I think there are a couple of bugs with the Login Item migration from SL to ML. For example, a disk image I mounted showed with a yellow icon too. I removed it, added it back in, and it was fine.

Thanks jf. That's helpful.

I installed ML an hour or so ago, going from 10.6.8 to 10.8.2. Having read quite a few comments I decided to take my time over this.

ML downloaded fine. About half an hour maybe. Installed itself then my iMac was restarted and, hey-presto, I'm back in business with a new OS.

Bit worried that my iMac was now rather sluggish, but not overly so because some kind person had posted on the App store that his Mac speeded back up after he had restarted. This proved the case for me too.

Went through all the set up screen re iCloud and App store. All the while I noticed my external backup drive was very busy too. Must be using it as temporary space I thought to myself.

Anyway, I decided that the first thing I should do is run Software Update. I had several items that needed updating and whilst one of them was installing, that dreaded message that all you guys are talking about popped up. I took a screen shot for later.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11373233/MacDiscussions/SpeechSynth%202012-12-08%20at%2 016.05.39.png

Not long after this my iMac's sceen turned black. I assumed this was due to the screen saver cutting in. It had done so about every 5 minutes during the time ML was downloading - apparently without causing a problem. I left it a while, then fired up the screen again. Then I got a dreadful fright when a message came up full screen telling me my iMac had encountered a problem and it was having to restart!

I decided toplay it cool and let everything play through and let the Mac restart, see what happens. Turned out I was worrying unnecessaryily, all I needed to do was run Software Update again. I downloaded the items individually this time, not all in one go like before. All seems okay - at the moment.

I still don't know what this SpeechSynthesisServer.app problem is. Text to Speech still seems to work. I wonder if it has anything to do with the new Voice recognition that I'm itching to try out.

Anyway, I'm leaving Voice recog alone for now until I'm more familiear with ML.

"DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING IN SYSTEM/LIBRARY." I notice that the Library is now hidden from us. Maybe what you say is the reason why?

By the way, I think I worked out why my iMac was sluggish when I first fired up ML. Spotlight was rebuilding it's database!

Message was edited by: El Deanio

I upgraded to ML from SL on the weekend - and had the same message. Apple support not too helpful - said ignore the message or download and re-install ML again. ( 4 Gig ! )

Seems to be a common problem.

Thanks for posting that, markas69.

I'm still having problems after upgrading from SL to ML in addition to the SpeechSynth problem. Garageband and horrendous screen artifacts for two things. Still, thanks to you, at least I know now that I may download ML again and have another go. To be honest, I thought that I had cocked it up by allowing the ML download file to be deleted before I had tested everything out and had been actively avoiding this option, I case I had to pay again.

I anticipate getting an upgraded cable modem from my ISP, VirginMedia, later this week so I am going to wait until I have installed their new "Super Hub" before I try downloading and installing ML again. Hopefully 60Mbits/s should prove handy for this purpose and I will not be bothered about the file size and it's download time on this occassion.

Currently I'm gradually going through my HDD with 'CleanMyMac' actively deleting stuff that is either i) old and unused, ii) no longer used or iii) someone has advised me to remove it - at the same time as noting everything down as I go in case it becomes relevant later. I can't think of anything better to do right now. All my problems seem to vanish if I boot into Safe Mode, so I'm pretty much convinced it's a software problem, rather than my iMac's motherboard. I just need to find the bugger (sorry, item) responsible. I aim to get Garageband and the Screen artifacts problems cured first before moving back to the SpeechSynth problem. A purely triage sort of decision though.

Message was edited by: El Deanio

Sorry. In my enthusiasm I forgot to ask you, did re-installing ML actually work for you?

Duhhh!

Hi El Deanio,

I have not been able to downlaod again as my allowance would be almost used for the month - so I am waiting a week or so to try downloading and reinstalling again - unless I decide to ignore it. I would prefer to do a clean install - but not sure if you get the option to do that. (Which is what i always did with Microsoft OS.) I'm still new to Mac - so still have a lot to learn.

I have read that "Speech Synthesis Server" is the process that allows time to be heard on the hour and it runs on start up. I have never had the message since upgrading and the text to speech function works by reading text and the time is spoken on the hour. So I am now tending to ignore this once off message.

I could only suggest that you clean your Mac out totally before trying again - if you have lots of old apps etc.. they may not be compatible with ML. If it was me, I would possibly be doing a clean install - best option I think.

Let us know how you go.

markas69 wrote:

... If it was me, I would possibly be doing a clean install - best option I think.

Good point. I will have to find out how to do this too. No doubt there's a FAQ about the subject here somewhere.

markas69 wrote:

Let us know how you go.

Willco.

Problem Solved

Thank you, jfaughnan, for posting. This solved my problem, after upgrading from OSX 10.6 (Snow Lepoard) to OSX 10.9 (Mavericks) on my Late 2008 MacBook Pro! I actually use the speech synthesis a lot to help my eyes with reading long articles.

When I looked at the Login Items under my user preferences, I noticed two instances of speechsynthesisserver.app in the login items. I believe that this is because one was from the Time Machine backup. I removed the one that I was able to remove with the lock icon in the "locked" position.

After, I logged out, and logged back into my account and the error message no longer appeared.